Wow… that was easy.

I’m in Kos now, yesterday I had my first sense of being alone after getting up in my private room that I got for 25 euros after getting off of the boat at 5 am. I went strait to sleep cause I didn’t sleep on the boat at all because I was worried about missing my stop. After I got some sleep I headed to the beach which was right across the street and hung out there a while. It was pretty lonely there since I knew no one and everyone there was a tourist that had come together with friends or family. I sat, read, recovered, and tried to figure out what my game plan for finding a job and apartment would be. While I was sitting around the sun beds all around me started to fill up with young Australians that seemed to know their way around the place pretty comfortably, so talkative me strikes up a conversation with them and wouldn’t you know it, they were all workers on the island. I talked with them a bit about where to find jobs and apartments, they almost all worked at bars on what here is called bar street. (basically and ally filled with loads of bars) They said that jobs were easy to come by but pretty much good luck with finding an apartment. We hung out a bit more, then I went to get a clock (needed a way to tell time now that my blackberry is gone L ) Got it, the clock was small and only cost 5 euros… buut  I had to get a pack of 4 batteries because they don’t sell anything in smaller packs here and it cost me 5 euros on its own. That’s just the way it works huh. I made plans to go to one of the bars this english guy who was with the group worked at. His bar was off of bar street and evidently was a lot more relaxed compared to bar street. Plus he said his boss might have vacancies in his apartments there. Went there around 10 it was pretty sweet. They had live Irish folk music and while it wasn’t very busy the people there were really cool. I hung out there, had dinner, and waited around for this guy to show up… but he never did. It was alright though I talked to more people there that had jobs and they all said that if I could I should avoid working at a bar on bar street at all costs because the hours are from 9 till like 6 or 7 in the morning every night and you only get paid 30 euros a night. I finished up at the pub and headed back to the hotel so I could get up earlier and try to get a job at a restaurant or something and work hard to find an apartment.

 

I got up and headed out, I had to walk past the port to get to where most of the restaurants were on the way there I got stopped by Harry a Greek Australian trying to get me to take his boat excursion I told him my situation and that I was looking for a job for the next 2 months and basically that I didn’t want to do the excursion.  As soon as I told him I was here for 2 months and was looking for a job his eyes perked up and he said he needed a worker. He offered me a job on the spot to stand out in front of his boat and try to convince people to take his excursion trips around the island and to neighboring islands near by. He offered my 30 Euros a day to do this, and I said yes please! So I’ll get paid the same amount of money as working my butt off at a bar for like 10 hours all night except I’ll be out in the harbor just talking to passerby’s convincing them to come out on a huge boat around the island. I set up a meeting with him to come talk after he got back from his excursion today at 5:30 it is 3:00 now so I’ve got a little bit till I go meet him.

 

But wait there’s more!

 

After I got the job which everyone told me would be the easier part of surviving here I went out on a quest for an apartment. I was told that all of the small mini marts underneath of apartment buildings were all run by the people who owned or at least worked in the apartments above, so I went on a tour of all of the mini marts I could find to try to find an apartment. On about the 4^th mini mart I walked in asked the lady if there was any apartments available, she said no, but there was another lady there checking out and she was really nice and asked me where I was from and what not, then she said her cousin had apartments here, so she called her up right then for me. She was speaking in Greek on the phone but I could definitely tell the word American which she used multiple times and judging by her tone of voice she was convincing her cousin to give me an apartment since I had come all this way on my own. She talked for a few minutes hung up and was like alright walk down two blocks and meet my cousins husband he’ll pick you up in a Mercedes and take you to the apartment. I was so happy! But I still didn’t know how much this was going to cost me or anything but it was definitely worth a look. I met the guy down there after my 10 min wait turned into 25 typical Greek but its all good. I jumped in the car with him, he spoke great English and took me to the apartment complex. On the way he informed me that he also owned a 5 star resort on the other side of the island and a couple travel agencies here. We pulled up to the apartment he showed me a place, pretty big with 2 beds, 2 burners a fridge and a balcony. He said 300 euros a month and that included electric and water. I had heard about average for apartments was like 225, but the place is big enough so I can try to find a roommate and he said if I got one more person rent would go up to 450 but that’s still only 225 a person so I said for the second time today, YES PLEASE! I went got my stuff, got cash out to pay for the first months rent, and moved in! Oh did I mention its across the street from the beach as well and there are a bunch of gorgeous Scandinavian women living 2 doors down? Yah…. Its gonna be a rough summer!

 

I’m off to iron out the details for work then Karaoke afterwards!

 

Stay Classy,

 

Evan